Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 3 | Page 4

the level of his natural genius; abandoned
the reins of government to the ambitious hands which were stretched
forwards to grasp them; and amused his leisure with the most frivolous
gratifications. A public sale of favor and injustice was instituted, both
in the court and in the provinces, by the worthless delegates of his
power, whose merit it was made sacrilege to question. ^3 The
conscience of the credulous prince was directed by saints and bishops;
^4 who procured an Imperial edict to punish, as a capital offence, the
violation, the neglect, or even the ignorance, of the divine law. ^5
Among the various arts which had exercised the youth of Gratian, he
had applied himself, with singular inclination and success, to manage
the horse, to draw the bow, and to dart the javelin; and these

qualifications, which might be useful to a soldier, were prostituted to
the viler purposes of hunting. Large parks were enclosed for the
Imperial pleasures, and plentifully stocked with every species of wild
beasts; and Gratian neglected the duties, and even the dignity, of his
rank, to consume whole days in the vain display of his dexterity and
boldness in the chase. The pride and wish of the Roman emperor to
excel in an art, in which he might be surpassed by the meanest of his
slaves, reminded the numerous spectators of the examples of Nero and
Commodus, but the chaste and temperate Gratian was a stranger to
their monstrous vices; and his hands were stained only with the blood
of animals. ^6 The behavior of Gratian, which degraded his character in
the eyes of mankind, could not have disturbed the security of his reign,
if the army had not been provoked to resent their peculiar injuries. As
long as the young emperor was guided by the instructions of his
masters, he professed himself the friend and pupil of the soldiers; many
of his hours were spent in the familiar conversation of the camp; and
the health, the comforts, the rewards, the honors, of his faithful troops,
appeared to be the objects of his attentive concern. But, after Gratian
more freely indulged his prevailing taste for hunting and shooting, he
naturally connected himself with the most dexterous ministers of his
favorite amusement. A body of the Alani was received into the military
and domestic service of the palace; and the admirable skill, which they
were accustomed to display in the unbounded plains of Scythia, was
exercised, on a more narrow theatre, in the parks and enclosures of
Gaul. Gratian admired the talents and customs of these favorite guards,
to whom alone he intrusted the defence of his person; and, as if he
meant to insult the public opinion, he frequently showed himself to the
soldiers and people, with the dress and arms, the long bow, the
sounding quiver, and the fur garments of a Scythian warrior. The
unworthy spectacle of a Roman prince, who had renounced the dress
and manners of his country, filled the minds of the legions with grief
and indignation. ^7 Even the Germans, so strong and formidable in the
armies of the empire, affected to disdain the strange and horrid
appearance of the savages of the North, who, in the space of a few
years, had wandered from the banks of the Volga to those of the Seine.
A loud and licentious murmur was echoed through the camps and
garrisons of the West; and as the mild indolence of Gratian neglected to

extinguish the first symptoms of discontent, the want of love and
respect was not supplied by the influence of fear. But the subversion of
an established government is always a work of some real, and of much
apparent, difficulty; and the throne of Gratian was protected by the
sanctions of custom, law, religion, and the nice balance of the civil and
military powers, which had been established by the policy of
Constantine. It is not very important to inquire from what cause the
revolt of Britain was produced. Accident is commonly the parent of
disorder; the seeds of rebellion happened to fall on a soil which was
supposed to be more fruitful than any other in tyrants and usurpers; ^8
the legions of that sequestered island had been long famous for a spirit
of presumption and arrogance; ^9 and the name of Maximus was
proclaimed, by the tumultuary, but unanimous voice, both of the
soldiers and of the provincials. The emperor, or the rebel, - for this title
was not yet ascertained by fortune, - was a native of Spain, the
countryman, the fellow-soldier, and the rival of Theodosius whose
elevation he had not seen without some emotions of envy and
resentment: the events of his life had long since fixed him in Britain;
and I should not be unwilling to